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Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Walking Dead: Episode One - Review

After fumbling the ball quite pathetically with Jurassic Park's deplorable quick-time events, Telltale seem to have gotten their head back on their shoulders and created an enjoyable experience with The Walking Dead. You play as Lee Everett, a convicted murderer being escorted to a life sentence in prison. When the police car strikes a zombie, you find yourself swarmed by a horde of the walking dead, left to escape on foot. Rescued by a young girl, Clementine, you two strike a bond as you meet a considerable cast of other characters attempting to survive in the zombie apocalypse.

There are some minor missteps here and there, but TWD strikes a nice balance between interactive cutscenes and more conventional point and click adventure gameplay. The story it tells is fairly typical zombie canon, but the characters are all fairly interesting thanks to some good writing and voice acting. More importantly, your interactions with other characters feel meaningful; you're presented with a lot of dialogue options and have to make tough decisions, and characters remember these things down the road. Your actions shape the nature of the story as it develops.

Telltale's The Walking Dead is a very good game that I enjoyed playing. It's not perfect, but the problems were not enough to detract from the experience, and I found myself surprisingly engrossed in its world. It's an easy game to recommend if you're a fan of The Walking Dead or if you're just looking for a fun adventure game. For more of my thoughts on the game's first episode, read my full review in the May issue of Adventure Lantern.